Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

This week, the center of the church’s year, is one of striking contrasts: Jesus rides into Jerusalem surrounded by shouts of glory, only to be left alone to die on the cross, abandoned by even his closest friends. Mark’s gospel presents Jesus in his complete human vulnerability: agitated, grieved, scared, forsaken. Though we lament Christ’s suffering and all human suffering, we also expect God’s salvation: in the wine and bread, Jesus promises that his death will mark a new covenant with all people. We enter this holy week thirsty for the completion of God’s astonishing work.

Isaiah 50:4-9a

The servant of the Lord submits to suffering

Psalm 31:9-16

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. (Ps. 31:5)

Philippians 2:5-11

Humbled to the point of death on a cross

Mark 14:1--15:47

The passion of the Lord

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

God promises Jeremiah that a “new covenant” will be made in the future: a covenant that will allow all the people to know God by heart. The church sees this promise fulfilled in Christ, who draws all people to himself when he is lifted up on the cross. Our baptismal covenant draws us to God’s heart through Christ and draws God’s love and truth into our hearts. We join together in worship, sharing in word, song, and meal, and leave strengthened to share God’s love with all the world.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

A new covenant written on the heart

Psalm 51:1-12

Create in me a clean heart, O God. (Ps. 51:10)

Hebrews 5:5-10

Through suffering Christ becomes the source of salvation

John 12:20-33

The grain of wheat dying in the earth

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

The fourth of the Old Testament promises providing a baptismal lens this Lent is the promise God makes to Moses: those who look on the bronze serpent will live. In today’s gospel Jesus says he will be lifted up on the cross like the serpent, so that those who look to him in faith will live. When we receive the sign of the cross in baptism, that cross becomes the sign we can look to in faith for healing, for restored relationship to God, for hope when we are dying.

Numbers 21:4-9

The lifting up of the serpent

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

You deliver your people from their distress. (Ps. 107:19)

Ephesians 2:1-10

Saved by grace through faith for good works

John 3:14-21

The lifting up of the Son of Man

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

The third covenant in this year’s Lenten readings is the central one of Israel’s history: the gift of the law to those God freed from slavery. The commandments begin with the statement that because God alone has freed us from the powers that oppressed us, we are to let nothing else claim first place in our lives. When Jesus throws the merchants out of the temple, he is defending the worship of God alone and rejecting the ways commerce and profit-making can become our gods. The Ten Commandments are essential to our baptismal call: centered first in God’s liberating love, we strive to live out justice and mercy in our communities and the world.

Exodus 20:1-17

The commandments are given at Sinai

Psalm 19

The commandment of the Lord gives light to the eyes. (Ps. 19:8)

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Christ crucified, the wisdom of God

John 2:13-22

The cleansing of the temple

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

The second covenant in this year’s Lenten readings is the one made with Abraham and Sarah: God’s promise to make them the ancestors of many, with whom God will remain in everlasting covenant. Paul says this promise comes to all who share Abraham’s faith in the God who brings life into being where there was no life. We receive this baptismal promise of resurrection life in faith. Sarah and Abraham receive new names as a sign of the covenant, and we too get new identities in baptism, as we put on Christ.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

God blesses Abraham and Sarah

Psalm 22:23-31

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. (Ps. 22:27)

Romans 4:13-25

The promise to those who share Abraham’s faith

Mark 8:31-38

The passion prediction

Pr. Timothy Brown, guest preacher

On Ash Wednesday the church began its journey toward baptismal immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ. This year, the Sundays in Lent lead us to focus on five covenants God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and to use them as lenses through which to view baptism. First Peter connects the way God saved Noah’s family in the flood with the way God saves us through the water of baptism. The baptismal covenant is made with us individually, but the new life we are given in baptism is for the sake of the whole world.

Genesis 9:8-17

The rainbow, sign of God’s covenant

Psalm 25:1-10

Your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness. (Ps. 25:10)

1 Peter 3:18-22

Saved through water

Mark 1:9-15

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

The Sundays after Epiphany began with Jesus’ baptism and end with three disciples’ vision of his transfiguration. In Mark’s story of Jesus’ baptism, apparently only Jesus sees the Spirit descending and hears the words from heaven. But now Jesus’ three closest friends hear the same words naming him God’s Beloved. As believers, Paul writes, we are enabled to see the God-light in Jesus’ face, because the same God who created light in the first place has shone in our hearts to give us that vision. The light of God’s glory in Jesus has enlightened us through baptism and shines in us also for others to see.

2 Kings 2:1-12

Elijah taken up to heaven and succeeded by Elisha

Psalm 50:1-6

Out of Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth in glory. (Ps. 50:2)

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

God’s light seen clearly in the face of Christ

Mark 9:2-9

Revelation of Christ as God’s beloved Son

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

In Isaiah the one God who sits above the earth and numbers the stars also strengthens the powerless. So in Jesus’ healing work we see the hand of the creator God, lifting up the sick woman to health and service (diakonia). Like Simon’s mother-in-law, we are lifted up and healed to serve. Following Jesus, we strengthen the powerless; like Jesus, we seek to renew our own strength in quiet times of prayer.

Isaiah 40:21-31

The creator of all cares for the powerless

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

The Lord heals the brokenhearted. (Ps. 147:3)

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

A servant for the sake of the gospel

Mark 1:29-39

The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

In Deuteronomy God promises to raise up a prophet like Moses, who will speak for God; in Psalm 111 God shows the people the power of God’s works. For the church these are ways of pointing to the unique authority people sensed in Jesus’ actions and words. We encounter that authority in God’s word, around which we gather, the word that prevails over any lesser spirit that would claim power over us, freeing us to follow Jesus.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

The prophet speaks with God’s authority

Psalm 111

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Ps. 111:10)

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Limits to liberty: the case of food offered to idols

Mark 1:21-28

The healing of one with an unclean spirit

Pr. Jon Niketh, preaching

As we continue through the time after Epiphany, stories of the call to discipleship show us the implications of our baptismal calling to show Christ to the world. Jesus begins proclaiming the good news and calling people to repentance right after John the Baptist is arrested for preaching in a similar way. Knowing that John was later executed, we see at the very outset the cost of discipleship. Still, the two sets of brothers leave everything they have known and worked for all their lives to follow Jesus and fish for people.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Repentance at Nineveh

Psalm 62:5-12

God alone is my rock and my salvation. (Ps. 62:6)

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Living in the end times

Mark 1:14-20

The calling of the disciples at the sea